For a few minutes, it almost feels like 2008 again inside the air-conditioned gym. The raucous crowd is chanting and cheering and slinging I love you‘s. Before Barack Obama revs up his speech, they’re singing happy birthday to the President, who turns 51 on Saturday. “If I’d have known you guys were going to sing, I’d have brought a cake,” Obama tells the crowd of 2,400 at Rollins College in the Orlando suburbs. “I’d have made a wish. It probably would have had to do with electoral votes,” Obama adds. “We’re in Florida. It wouldn’t have been a bad birthday present.”

Outside in the August heat, Florida doesn’t look quite so friendly. Sign-toting protesters occupy scorched pavement in the bland suburban sprawl. The Sunshine State’s unemployment rate is 8.6%. Voters aren’t convinced it’s getting better. To carry Florida, one of the battlegrounds that will decide the presidential election, Obama will have to overcome a grim economy and a yawning fundraising deficit. A president hasn’t won re-election with a national unemployment rate above 8% since the Great Depression. Which is why, with Election Day just 95 days away, Obama’s campaign is in the midst of a swing-state charm offensive that puts the candidate in front of the narrow slice of voters that count most.

After hitting Ohio on Wednesday, Obama continued the blitz on Thursday with stops in two of the country’s most pivotal markets. Obama’s visit to Orlando and Northern Virginia was a bid to shore up his standing with critical demographic groups, including women, Hispanics and young voters. With a bleak economic outlook, and without fresh policies to make things better, Obama almost seems to be betting that he can scrap his way to re-election on likability alone.

It could work. A poll jointly released Tuesday by the New York Times, CBS News and Quinnipiac University pegged Obama’s lead in Florida and Ohio at six points apiece, 11 in Pennsylvania. The economy was voters’ top-ranked concern in each state; the President’s cushion was provided by his stronger personal connection with voters. Obama earned at least a 50% favorability rating from voters in each state, and between 55% and 58% when voters were asked whether Obama “cares about the needs and problems of people like you.” On that question, Romney scored between 38% and 42%.

At campaign events on Thursday, Obama touted a newly released analysis by an independent, nonpartisan think tank that suggested Mitt Romney’s tax plan would be regressive. Romney has yet to fill in the fine print of his pledge to give all Americans a 20% tax cut without adding to the deficit. But the study found that in order to meet those promises, Romney’s plan would lower taxes on the wealthy while slightly hiking overall rates on the middle class, who would be hit harder by likely loophole closures.

The upshot, Obama said, would be a tax increase of about $2,200 on the typical family of four. Individuals who haul in more than $3 million a year would save some $250,000. “He’s asking you to pay more,” Obama said, “so that people like him can pay less.” His campaign released a new ad Thursday morning with a similar theme, and rolled out a feature on its website that allows voters to calculate the Romney plan’s effect on their finances.

The comparison dovetails with the Obama campaign’s imperative, which is to make the election a “choice”– a word the President laces throughout his speeches – and not a referendum on his stewardship of the economy. “He laid out the differences well,” says Mary Kay Oweck, 67, a retired attorney from Winter Park. A registered Republican who voted for George W. Bush in 2000 but now leans Democrat, Oweck says she plans to vote for Obama.

“They have tried to sell us this trickle-down tax cut fairy dust before,” Obama said in Winter Park. “Every time we’ve grown,” he added in Virginia, “it hasn’t been from the top down. It’s been from the middle out.”

But even the pocketbook pitch is geared toward voters’ hearts more than their wallets. It’s part of the ongoing effort to define Romney as a greedy corporate raider, an executive attuned to the concerns of the boardrooms instead of those of middle-class voters. Painting Romney as a callous financier who would return the country to the fiscal policies that caused the recession is part of the Democrat’s attempt to make the challenger an unpalatable alternative for wavering independent voters.

The contrast between the two candidates’ campaign styles has been nearly as stark as the difference between their economic prescriptions. The sitting President has blanketed the swing states, holding campaign stops in steamy weather and pouring rain. Romney has kept a low-key schedule, attending fundraisers and keeping his distance from the press. Even his stump speech, which has come a long way since the days he crooned patriotic hymns to eat up clock, still seem engineered less to motivate than to avoid giving offense.

Romney’s remoteness is Obama’s gain, as a new Pew Research Center survey released Thursday underscored. Half of all registered voters have a favorable impression of the President, with 45% viewing him unfavorably. Just 37% of respondents had a favorable image of Romney, compared to 52% with an unfavorable impression. Some Democrats grouse about Obama’s aloofness, but polls show most voters do not like Mitt Romney. It’s easy to be the candidate people want to have a beer with when the other guy doesn’t drink.

The president tried to press that edge Thursday. Before his event in Winter Park, Obama made an unscheduled stop at a cramped Puerto Rican restaurant advertising $3.95 lunch specials in Orlando’s Azalea Park neighborhood, a mostly Hispanic working-class enclave, where he picked up a $6 plate of pulled pork. Stowing his lunch in his limo, Obama waded into a crowd of mostly young African American children, attendees at a nearby church summer camp, for handshakes and photos. After working the rope line at Rollins College, he spoke by closed-circuit TV to a conference of female bloggers.

On he went to Virginia, a state to which he has traveled 38 times as President, 11 times this year alone–and not just because it’s in his backyard. On the grounds of a Loudoun County high school, Obama stoked an upbeat crowd on a floodlit stage under a pink-streaked sky. He kicked off a U-S-A chant in tribute to local gymnast Gabby Douglas’ Olympic triumph, wound through comparisons of the candidates’ tax plan and built to his request for four more years. “My faith in you is stronger than ever, and if you still believe in me like I believe in you, I’m asking you to stand with me,” he said to applause, slipping into his preacher’s cadence and noting that a win in Loudoun County would mean winning Virginia. “If we win Virginia we will win this election, and we’ll finish what we started in 2008.”

But even his fans aren’t fooled by the attempt to replicate the old magic. And his opponents gathered on the streets outside the school, chanting slogans that labeled the President anti-business and toting Romney placards; one sign called Obama a “socialist poseur.” “The momentum isn’t there that was there before,” says Nichelle Watts-Rivera, an accountant from Round Hill, Va. “I think there was a huge expectation that things would be fixed in four years.”

That didn’t happen. What matters now is whether Obama can charm voters into giving him four more.

What do the people in Las Vegas think about the honesty of Pee Wee Reid?

Las Vegas Review Journal

August 5, 2012

Harry Reid's mouth is on quite a roll.

Looking to score political points for his party in the upcoming presidential election, the Senate majority leader this week sunk to the "when did you stop beating your wife" level - all while also apparently managing to channel Mitt Romney's late father.

Ramping up the pressure on Mr. Romney to release his tax returns dating back to ... well, however far back Democrats arbitrarily decide, Sen. Reid told the Huffington Post that the GOP presidential candidate "didn't pay taxes for 10 years."

Sen. Reid claims to have an anonymous source over at Bain Capital, Mr. Romney's former company. How does that person know what's on Mr. Romney's tax returns? Who knows? And neither does Sen. Reid, who added, "Now, do I know that that's true? Well, I'm not certain."

But what the heck, why not just run with it anyway?

And Sen. Reid kept talking, eventually saying that Mr. Romney's father, the late George Romney, who released 12 years of his federal tax returns when he ran for president in 1968, "must be so embarrassed about his son." Nice.

Sen. Reid has apparently decided to push all his chips to the middle while holding a two-eight off suit.

Mr. Romney has already released his 2010 tax returns and plans to make public his 2011 file when it's completed. What all this has to do with anything other than trying to generate a "gotcha" moment remains unclear. Is the IRS pursuing Mr. Romney, alleging improprieties in his past tax filings? Of course not. So whatever is on those returns is legally consistent with a tax code that Harry Reid helped create.

For that matter, what's on Sen. Reid's tax returns?

Sen. Reid's bluff is nothing more than a not-so-subtle effort to generate embarrassing headlines for Mitt Romney, to obscure real issues and deflect attention from the sorry state of this nation's economy after almost four years of Barack Obama's stewardship.

Politics is a blood sport. But if Harry Reid is going to crash the table talking trash, he'd better have some cards. If not, he should zip it and fold his hand.

Hopeless Harry still hasn't revealed his sources. Even Jon Stewart thinks he's full of crap. And even the White House has distanced said he speaks for himself. And of course you love this inane crap, you're a leftwinger.

Well you might not(shocking) but a lot, if not most of your fellow libs do. You and the rest would never allow the stones to be put on this issue because it's pretty much the only issue that your side has. And anyway it's fun seeing how Stephanie Brainclutter and Hopeless Harry have been driven crazy hee hee.

Well whining is something you specialize in. First it was trying to make Romney look like a homophobe because of what he did in school, Now it's Bain and taxes. Anything to distract the public from his pathetic record. So, in short, continue comrade.

The “Shiny Object Award Program” was created to recognize the TIME Journalist who achieves the highest score in the writing of “Shiny Object Stories”.

Shiny Object Stories are stories that, rather than talk about the important issues related to the Presidential election, choose to write about subjects of minor importance. These stories are designed to take the pressure off President Obama on the big issues such as Jobs, the economy and his record and to aid him in his re-election campaign.

It also show how much in the tank a TIME Journalist is for Barack Obama.

Again congratulations Alex. You have proven yourself to be the epitimy of Partisan Journalist.

Did Obama address the number of Muslim Brotherhood members he has working in his Administration now? I was just curious if he has been honest with the people he's hoping will want to re-elect him in November.

More right-wing propaganda, much like joe mccarthy, maybe if you are so gullible , you could be convinced of more loony ideas, however you may have a point not against obama but against other liberals.

Truth: Romney paid a higher Federal Income Rate than 97% of all Americans tax payers.

FactCheck.Org

A new ad from the Obama campaign claims that Mitt Romney “paid only 14 percent in taxes—probably less than you.” That depends. Romney paid a federal income tax rate that is higher than the income tax rate paid by 97 percent of tax filers. But if you include a combination of income taxes and payroll taxes — which make up the bulk of federal taxes for most taxpayers — the ad is accurate.

The ad, called “Stretch,” is the first to feature a report from the Tax Policy Center that concluded a plan like Romney’s proposal for across-the-board tax cuts, together with the goal of remaining revenue neutral, would ultimately raise taxes on people making less than 200,000 dollars a year. The ad contrasts those findings with data from Romney’s 2010 tax return.

The ad begins with a narrator stating, “You work hard, stretch every penny, but chances are you pay a higher tax rate than him: Mitt Romney made 20 million dollars in 2010, but paid only 14 percent in taxes—probably less than you.”

According to Romney’s 2010 tax return, he had an adjusted gross income of about 21.7 million in 2010 and paid about 3 million in taxes. That comes to an effective tax rate of 13.9 percent. That’s considerably less than the amount paid by most people with that high of an income, but in Romney’s case most of his income comes from dividends and capital gains — which are taxed at 15 percent rather than the highest marginal rate of 35 percent. Romney dipped below the 15 percent threshold because he donated about 14 percent of his income to charity.

The question, though, is whether Romney paying 14 percent is “probably less than you.”

It’s not if you look strictly at the income tax paid to the IRS. Scott Hodge, president of the business-backed Tax Foundation, released a report based on 2009 IRS tax data that found 97 percent of American tax filers paid a lower rate of income tax than Romney did. The bottom 40 percent of tax filers pay no income tax at all, or receive a refund, Hodge told us in a phone interview, and so “by definition, those people are paying less than Mitt Romney.” On average, Hodge said, people making between 100,000 and 200,000 dollars paid about 12 percent in federal income taxes. That’s less than Romney’s 13.9 percent, and people making less than 200,000 dollars represent more than 97 percent of all tax filers.

No, President Obama released 12 years of tax returns and a birth certificate. It's your guy's turn now. You know the old show me yours and I show you mine. An honorable person would have no problemo with that.

Actually Romney paid a higher Income Tax rate than 97% of American tax payers.

A new ad from the Obama campaign claims that Mitt Romney “paid only 14 percent in taxes—probably less than you.”

That depends. Romney paid a federal income tax rate that is higher than the income tax rate paid by 97 percent of tax filers. But if you include a combination of income taxes and payroll taxes — which make up the bulk of federal taxes for most taxpayers — the ad is accurate.

The ad, called “Stretch,” is the first to feature a report from the Tax Policy Center that concluded a plan like Romney’s proposal for across-the-board tax cuts, together with the goal of remaining revenue neutral, would ultimately raise taxes on people making less than $200,000 a year.

The ad contrasts those findings with data from Romney’s 2010 tax return.

The ad begins with a narrator stating, “You work hard, stretch every penny, but chances are you pay a higher tax rate than him: Mitt Romney made $20 million dollars in 2010, but paid only 14 percent in taxes—probably less than you.”

According to Romney’s 2010 tax return, he had an adjusted gross income of about $21.7 million in 2010 and paid about $3 million in taxes. That comes to an effective tax rate of 13.9 percent. That’s considerably less than the amount paid by most people with that high of an income, but in Romney’s case most of his income comes from dividends and capital gains — which are taxed at 15 percent rather than the highest marginal rate of 35 percent. Romney dipped below the 15 percent threshold because he donated about 14 percent of his income to charity.

The question, though, is whether Romney paying 14 percent is “probably less than you.”

It’s not if you look strictly at the income tax paid to the IRS. Scott Hodge, president of the business-backed Tax Foundation, released a report based on 2009 IRS tax data that found 97 percent of American tax filers paid a lower rate of income tax than Romney did.

The bottom 40 percent of tax filers pay no income tax at all, or receive a refund, Hodge told us in a phone interview, and so “by definition, those people are paying less than Mitt Romney.” On average, Hodge said, people making between $100,000 and $200,000 paid about 12 percent in federal income taxes. That’s less than Romney’s 13.9 percent, and people making less than $200,000 represent more than 97 percent of all tax filers.

"Romney’s remoteness is Obama’s gain, as a new Pew Research Center survey released Thursday underscored. Half of all registered voters have a favorable impression of the President, with 45% viewing him unfavorably."

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The desperation of the liberal media. PEW needs a D+19 sample to get a 50% approval for the worst president ever.

Normally I do not respond to idiot children, but You I will. Name calling and false charges are the typical retort from Treasonous Egotistical Agnostics(TEA) party types. I have no blind loyalties, except to my country and family. KMRA! TEA party activists try to dispel or pass legislation 33 times(Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act(PPACA) which has Supreme Court backing) in an effort to get their way, thinking they will see a different outcome. The Treasonous Erring Anarchist(TEA) party, and everyone on stage in the Florida debate, did not interrupt the booing audience when an American soldier, in theater, in uniform questioned about D.A.D.T. One of my best friends attended TAMU and died in theater for our beliefs, and these confrontational anarchist force their skewed beliefs force their narrow minded issues on the rest of us. TEA-Republican do not want to strengthen Sarbanes Oxley act of 2002 and the Frank Dodd Act, because, these two acts provide guidelines and restrictio­­­ns put into place resulting from the recession of 2007 and 2008 when major corporate and accounting scandals like Enron, Adelphia, TYCO and Worldcom which cost investors billions and sent others into bankruptcy. So yes, I have researched and investigated all the parties and their standard bearers and have concluded, the TEA party are not inclusive and in fact prove bigotry and prejudice towards people of color, women, gays and undocumented workers.

Goodness you need to decide on your acronyms comrade. You don't seem to concerned with your Dear Leader engaging in massive tax payer outsourcing, whining about the evil fat cats on wall street while taking campaign money from them, and following Bush's policies , the very same policies that he opposed while running for the presidency Gitmo is still open for instance. His handing over of taxpayer money to his political allies among others. Your constant rants against the TEA party are indicative at just how clueless you are about them, it's obvious that you and your fellow lib loons can't defend your Dear Leaders dismal record so you smear them trying to portray them as the Nazi's it's very pathetic and typical of the Left but that's to be expected considering how messed up you are.

So who are your heroes then the OWS types? The self styled "revolutionaries"who do drugs, rape women, attack police officers and burn American flags? It certainly says a lot about how retarded the looney Left has become. Forward Comrade.

Acronyms - I have many as the Toxic Evangelical antagonist(TEA) have shown they are just as culpable as the Treacherous Adversarial Egotist(TEA) due to mutual bonding and wetting themselves every time they oust an incumbent. Our Leader, because he's your leader as well, has done a magnificent job even while dealing the the confrontational TEA fringe of the Republican sect. Not quite sure what you mean with taxpayer outsourcing, Romney is excellent at outsourcing his millions to keep it away from the tax man. And the whining you referred to about the evil cats on Wall Street is disingenuous as Romney received much more than Obama did. Obama doesn't whine, nor does he gloat standing in front of a banner on the deck of a warship. As far as Bush's policies, remember the Congress holds the purse strings and has always held the purse strings, so any action on the Administrative side are severely restrained by the TEA control over the Republican party. Gitmo is still open because the cry baby of the House coddles down to the "not-now-not-ever" cult controllers he bows to. Handing over monies to political allies has no substance or truth and until you prove beyond any shadow of doubt every predecessor did not do the same, I win this argument. As far as clueless about the fringe TEA party themselves, I have ex-tenuous knowledge since I dine with one of the most rabid of limited mental capabilities diggers. I listen to his rants all the time and watch him post mindlessly on the net his personal beliefs and desires. I listen to him because I wore the uniform, served honorably to protect everyone's right to vent. Our biggest argument was over how no a one on stage during the Florida debate shut down the audience or called the audience out when a soldier, in uniform, in theater questioned the candidates on DADT, and was booed. Last I heard every soldier who places his life on the line for the USA anywhere, still bleeds red blood. Their in-action solidified my position and mu buddy still hasn't made any good retort. Can you? Truth be told Lincoln and Reagan are turning over in their graves to the actions and words by today's version of Republicans. My only hero's were my parents who raised six on minimal wages and if we were poor we didn't know it! You strike me as one who rallies behind the Confederate flag and then the Stars and Stripes, who believes yours doesn't stink and are the only ones who honor and respect the flag and God. I am not comrade. I am an American, proud and fly the US flag over my Texas flag in my front yard. Because I think, I feel you are lost and sadly misinformed by those around you. Vote your preference, I will vote mine!

"Our Leader, because he's your leader as well, has done a magnificent job even while dealing the the confrontational TEA fringe of the Republican sect."

Ha, ha, ha, ha. Well you've proven you are a proud member of the looney left. The're the only ones ignorant enough to believe that.

Apparently you're dringing way too much of the Obama Kool-Ad.

Fact: Barack Obama is one of the least quilified, inexperienced and inept persons to ever be elected President of the USA.

Fact: Mitt Romney is one of the most highly qualified and experienced individuals to ever run for President.

Put aside all the Obama Campaign negative ads and let’s look at Truth and Facts. Mitt Romney is one of the most highly qualified and experienced individuals to ever run for President. · He attended Harvard Law and Harvard Business Schools concurrently earning advanced degrees in both Law and Business Management and graduating MCL.· He has been a very successful Chief Executive of several companies and organizations in both the private and public sectors. · He served for three years as President of the Salt Lake Olympics without pay and turned a probable major failure into a very successful Olympics. · He served as an Intern in the Michigan Governor's office for 8 years gaining a good deal of experience and knowledge about government operations and management. · He served as Governor of Massachusetts for 4 years without pay. When he came into office Massachusetts had many financial problems. Again through his leadership and management skills he was able to eliminate a $1.5 billion State debt and at the end of his 4 years the state had a surplus of $2 billion. He accomplished this turn-around while working with a state legislature that was 85% Democrats. · As an Entrepreneur he started his own company Bain Capital and built it into one of the most successful Venture-Capital Investment Companies in the world. His first major business deal involved investing in a start-up office supply company with one store. That company, called Staples, now has over 2,000 stores and employs over 90,000 people. Romney and his company Bain Capital would go on to perform the same kinds of business miracles with companies like Domino's, Sealy, Brookstone, Weather Channel, Burger King, Warner Music Group, Dollarama, Home Depot and many others. According to the Wall Street Journal, 78% of the companies that Bain invested in and provided management expertise to became successful while 22% failed. The companies that failed were almost all companies that were in major financial trouble before Bain invested in them and tried to turn them into successful companies. He served as a Mormon missionary in France for 2 years. He served as bishop and stake president for his church for 10 years.

· He attended Harvard Law and Harvard Business Schools concurrently earning advanced degrees in both Law and Business Management and graduating MCL.

· He has been a very successful Chief Executive of several companies and organizations in both the private and public sectors.

· He served for three years as President of the Salt Lake Olympics without pay and turned a probable major failure into a very successful Olympics.

· He served as an Intern in the Michigan Governor's office for 8 years gaining a good deal of experience and knowledge about government operations and management.

· He served as Governor of Massachusetts for 4 years without pay. When he came into office Massachusetts had many financial problems. Again through his leadership and management skills he was able to eliminate a $1.5 billion State debt and at the end of his 4 years the state had a surplus of $2 billion. He accomplished this turn-around while working with a state legislature that was 85% Democrats.

· As an Entrepreneur he started his own company Bain Capital and built it into one of the most successful Venture-Capital Investment Companies in the world. His first major business deal involved investing in a start-up office supply company with one store. That company, called Staples, now has over 2,000 stores and employs over 90,000 people.

Romney and his company Bain Capital would go on to perform the same kinds of business miracles with companies like Domino's, Sealy, Brookstone, Weather Channel, Burger King, Warner Music Group, Dollarama, Home Depot and many others.

According to the Wall Street Journal, 78% of the companies that Bain invested in and provided management expertise to became successful while 22% failed.

The companies that failed were almost all companies that were in major financial trouble before Bain invested in them and tried to turn them into successful companies.

You're diehard unquestioning support of Obama is eerily similar to how the die hard supporters of the Nazi's and the Communists sounded. If by doing the a magnificent job you mean adding more than 5 trillion dollars to the deficit, an 8.3 percent unemployment rate, more people living in poverty, more people living on food stamps, more misery , more suffering then yeah he's in a league of his own. His attitude towards wall street is you're evil but i want your money to get reelected. As far as tax payer funded outsourcing you're obviously not aware of the blatant outsourcing that occurred as part of his so called stimulus package to the tune of billions. You're outraged about Romney's millions but don't care about Obama's wasting billions. Ever since he was elected all he's done is whine make excuses, and blame others for his screw ups.

Obama had control of both houses of Congress for the first two years of his presidency in which he did nothing but ram through his agenda and arrogantly expected everyone to fall in line. And as a result he got shellacked hee hee. Gitmo is open because while he could have shut it down ,Obama in true style says one thing and does the other. And people like you blindly still follow him. And do you know a majority of veterans support Romney. The only place you've won this argument is in your own imagination. If Lincoln or Reagan are rolling in their graves at what Obama is doing to the country. And JFK,Truman, and LBJ would be furious at what Obama, Pelosi, and Reid have done to the Dims, and the way they arrogantly try to impose their ideas on others.